Pascal's Wager suggests that, even though the existence of God cannot be determined by reason, a person should wager as though God exists because they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by betting on that proposition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal
There is an insurmountable difficulty with this suggestion: If you hold a reasonable doubt in something (i.e. the existence of God or winning the lottery), there is no conceivable way that you can will yourself to believe it without being insincere. This is the reason why Pascal's Wager is useless as an argument to advocate belief in God. Even if someone were to accept the suggestion and desperately desire eternal salvation, they can't attain it (according to the tenets of mainstream Christianity) unless they accept Jesus as their personal saviour. Obviously, you can't do that unless you believe that God exists and that Jesus died for your sins.
What is the upshot of this? Well, in the unlikely event that God exists, he has forever damned all of his creations who have been unfortunate enough to be bestowed with a critical sense of reason. It is really no different than if you tell me that I will be damned for eternity unless I believe that I will win the lottery tonight or any other state of affairs that I, after evaluating all of the available evidence, consider to be improbable. Even if you could convince me that the suggestion is probable, it would still be insincere of me to believe it as a matter of faith if I am left with any measure of doubt.
Your argument against Pascal's wager is well put. As an atheist who could never make that wager, I have to believe that, on the off chance that any kind of supernatural creator does exist that A) there still would be no hell(hell is even more preposterous a notion than god, in my opinion)and B) that the supernatural creator doesn't give a dust-bunny's fart whether or not we believe in him.
ReplyDeletePascal's Wager is useless not just because of that, but also because it assumes the god of the bible.
ReplyDeleteIn response, I posit a notgod of the bible. Let's call him Hewhay. Hewhay did exactly as Yahweh is supposed to have done. He sent his son as a sacrifice and all. He inspired people in the same way. He is exactly the same... except that, where Yahweh is written to send people to heaven or hell under certain circumstances, Hewhay instead sends people to hell and heaven respectively.
That is, if believing in Jesus as your personal saviour will get you to heaven if the deity is Yahweh, it will get you to hell if the deity is Hewhay.
The clincher is: without empirical evidence of who is sent to heaven or hell, the probability of Yahweh being the deity is the same as the probability of Hewhay being the deity.
I find that the beauty of this argument is that the bible can't be used as wiggle room, because Hewhay did that too.
TAM: I disagree that Pascal's Wager is no different than a belief in winning the lottery. The difference lies in the treat. Most, I think, would take eternal life over any amount of money.
ReplyDeleteI do agree, however, that the whole concept is stupid because surely God, if He exists, can distinguish between those who sincerely believe in His existence and those who do not.
Most, I think, would take eternal life over any amount of money.
ReplyDeleteReally? I'd take the money. Eternity is going to get boring after a while...
right on kaz dragon. pascal's wager supposes a christian god.
ReplyDeletei could take pascal's wager, but what if the muslim's are right in the end?
Conscious life itself is the ultimate lottery prize. We all won! How will you spend it?
ReplyDeleteLacsap's wager. Given that if zero evidence indicates the existence of a god or afterlife. Should you decide to spend the rest of your days believing that life is fleeting, unique, and precious? Or should you risk living a lie by believing in one of many doctrinal authorities that insists that a strict pious life will offer a type of currency to one of many possible invisible entities that is said to promise a better existence to your miserable life.